Saturday, April 26, 2014

Vintage Prom Dress

I made my first prom dress this week. My adorable cousin asked if I would make her a prom dress. I had already made her a Kate Middleton look alike dress, so I already had a sloper made from her personal measurements that I could use to draft a pattern for her.

Originally we had a design picked out, after some pinterest inspiration. However when I got the materials together, it just looked bad. I just knew that it was going to turn out differently than the picture of the dress on pinterest.

So instead I got some great butter yellow silk dupioni. I had some beautiful vintage looking embroidered tulle.

My cousin loves all things "old fashioned" and "vintage".

So we made a mock up.

And we made some changes, so many in fact the mockup was really pointless. However, I didn't mind in the slightest.

She had only ever worn straight dresses to her High School dances. Most of which she rented.

This was going to be her last formal, and she wanted something with a full skirt, and half sleeves, a high waistline, and she liked the yellow and the tulle. I also thought at the beginning the butter yellow silk and flowy sheer embroidered tulle looked somewhat vintage together.

I asked her what she wanted the top of the dress to look like. When she said she didn't know I asked if I could have creative license which she gave me.

I originally wanted to pleat the top and have it be a v-neck crossover. I made a muslin and the pleating was great, however to make it high enough at the "v" part of the dress I had to bring up the sides so far it looked funny, and I had very little fabric to spare to begin with. I knew to make a full gathered skirt I was cutting it really really close.

So I ended up going for more of an asymmetrical pleated bodice with a rounded neckline. After all was said and done the dress turned out really really vintage looking which was perfect for my cousin. She loved it.

I took the dress down to her today. I had to finish today as tomorrow is her prom.

When I got to her house her mom informed me that she had been nominated as Prom Queen!

Such a fun surprise! It was a surprise to her as well. She got a note in her second period that she had been nominated and was supposed to walk up on stage when they called her name at the assembly.

She is incredibly humble and doesn't like having attention drawn to herself. She decided she was just going to stay in the audience and let the show carry on without her. However when she got to the assembly it turns out she was the only one invited up to stage because she had been nominated prom queen!

She got a beautiful bouquet of flowers, and a pretty sparkly tiara to wear to the dance tomorrow.

I just couldn't imagine her being any more deserving than she already is to have such a fun thing happen.

She is just so much fun, has the kindest heart, loves to make people feel loved and has a love for all things vintage. (She had even gone to the trouble of finding vintage looking penny loafer heels, and looking for a pair of gloves to help aid in making her prom dress more vintage thinking that her dress probably wouldn't be, but she wanted to look vintage.)

I think the buttery yellow silk, and ivory embroidered tulle were meant for her.

She loved the dress, though we all agreed she needed to shorten the sleeves to short sleeves in the end. We also made a belt that has some of the flowers from the tulle sewn onto it to tie in tulle layer over the skirt. The belt also has some vintage yellow buttons I got from a fabric swap at the fabric shop I teach sewing lessons at. She ended up loving it and that is what made it all so so worth it!

I feel so honored to be able to have custom sewn a dress for royalty! ;)

I will get pictures posted and added to the post as soon as her mom has taken some tomorrow on her way to the dance!